We especially note the worsening social and economic conditions of
those who have been dispossessed of dignity and autonomy over their
lives, bodies, lands and natural resources, and denied rights to access
shelter, food, water, education & healthcare.

We call the attention of all freedom loving people across the
Continent and around the globe, to the pervasive and debilitating
violence faced by those who are pushed to the margins because of
divisive and unjust laws and policies, and poor practices by our own
governments, who do not respond to their people but to financial
interests. We condemn and resist attempts to homogenise Africa's
multiple legacies into legalised hatred and discrimination.

We rise up and come together as Africans globally, working for a
continent where self-determination, as well as physical, emotional,
social and economic wellbeing are guaranteed to all.

We come together to
condemn and resist all forms of violence and militarism, including
inter-community and state sponsored violence such as is currently rife
in the Central African Republic and Kenya; systemic violence against
Africans based on their actual or assumed sexual orientation and gender
identity, as in Nigeria and Uganda; and endemic violence against women,
girls and gender non-conforming persons, as witnessed in the abductions
of girls and lack of adequate response in Nigeria.

We remind ourselves of the critical contributions that Africans have
made across history in defining and defending principles of justice,
solidarity, liberation and diversity. We salute all Africans who speak
and have spoken in defence of these principles.

We stand for a return to Africa in every respect:

▪ Re-imagining our lives outside neo-colonial power.

▪ Breaking free from the structures, systems and individuals who
disappear our history and traditions of democratic principles and
respect for humanity, and who erase our cultures of agency, resistance,
creativity and people power.

▪ Reclaiming and upholding the rich legacies and cultural norms of collectivity, freedom, self-determination and ubuntu.

▪ Taking individual and collective responsibility to fight globally
and locally against the impoverishment and dispossession of the majority
of African people.

▪ Fighting for an end to violence and militarisation that destroys and harms us all.

▪ Fighting for an end to the greed and oppressive power responsible for the destruction of our lands and the Earth.

We recognise, affirm and insist that Africa needs:

Economic and environmental justice to claim and redistribute power,
to redistribute land and put our vast resources to the benefit of our
people and the healing of mother Earth.

To eradicate militarism and all forms of violence, including the violence of oppressive laws and of poverty.

Racial and ethnic justice.

The transformation of the politics of sex, sexuality and gender, the
rightful access to affirming and responsive institutions and services,
and the restoration of spaces free of fundamentalisms in order to
practice our religions and participate in our cultures.

Africa needs Africans who are imagining and building a future of
freedom. We believe that Africans, in our multiplicity, have the
potential to transform the world.

We, the undersigned, recommit ourselves to working actively for the Africa we want.